A huge map of the harbor is laid flat on the table, and this is where the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, the Mawei Shipyard and the Qing Navy are located, the Fujian Mawei Port.

Outside Mawei Port is the mouth of the Min River, and the waterway into the port is divided into two by Langqi Island, two waterways in the north and south. The southern waterway is not yet suitable for navigation due to its dense reefs and shoals, and ships can only use the northern waterway.

And this northern waterway, from a military point of view, can be said to be easy to defend and difficult to attack to the extreme, as long as a little attention is paid to, it can be impregnable.

The entrance to the waterway is called the Golden Gate, and it is extremely narrow. On both sides of the entrance are Changmen Mountain and Jinjin Mountain, the two mountains echo each other, and there are two small islands in the waterway, the North Turtle and the South Turtle, these two mountains and two islands are like an iron gate, firmly guarding the Gold Gate, as long as a strong and powerful fort is built at these four points, no matter how powerful the fleet is, do not want to enter Mawei Port. There is no need for a battery, as long as you find a big ship to sink in the Jinjinmen waterway, you can do the "sunken ship blockage", and you can only look at the dry stare inside and outside the port, in fact, in the previous life of the Mawei naval battle, when the French fleet attacked the Fujian sailors in the port, it left two warships in this Jinjinmen waterway to prevent the Chinese from sinking here and turning the entire French fleet into a dog locked in the door.

Entering the Golden Gate, it is a narrow and long winding waterway, twisting and turning a big bend, before reaching the real Mawei Port, even here still has excellent defensive terrain. In the middle of the harbor is Luo Xing Mountain, which echoes the opposite Ma Limit Mountain across the sea, and the Mawei Shipyard and the anchorage of the Qing Navy are next to Ma Limit Mountain. In other words, as long as the forts are built on the summits of Luoxing Mountain and Ma Limit Mountain, they can form a front and rear flank attack on any enemy who tries to invade the Mawei Shipyard.

With such excellent natural defensive terrain, if the Qing Dynasty government in the previous life had a little brains and made some proper preparations, then any attack on Mawei Harbor would have been stupid suicide. But the French just did it, although there is no clear record in history, but Ding Yuntong believes that the French must have sent spies to do a full investigation of the defense of the entire port area before attacking. Otherwise, no commander with a clear mind and a normal mind would dare to enter such an iron cage-like place rashly.

Now history will not repeat itself, Ding Yuntong only needs to repair the fort at the gold medal gate, sink the ship, and even lay mines. Then when the French fleet attacked, the colorful flags could be hung in the harbor, and everyone could participate in all kinds of entertainment activities with confidence, and it was time to play and sleep.

But this is not the best result that Ding Yuntong expects, he hopes to use this excellent terrain to lure the French fleet into the port, and then block the gold medal gate, to close the door and fight the dog, then the French Far East Fleet will suffer unprecedented losses, and with the land battle, it can gain a great bargaining chip for China at the negotiating table.

Based on such considerations, the construction of heavy forts at these four points, such as Changmen Mountain and Jinpai Mountain, Luo Xing Mountain and Ma Limit Mountain, should be kept highly confidential and camouflaged, and of course, some small treadmills should be properly repaired, otherwise the French spies would not be able to be deceived. As for the North Turtle and South Turtle Island in the waterway, it seems that they can't be moved, and the overhaul of civil engineering on the small island can't be disguised, and it can't be hidden from the eyes of the surrounding residents and fishermen, as long as the French spies stuff some money, they can see the mystery, Ding Yuntong has no doubt about the ignorance of the ordinary Chinese people, if the construction of the fort can avoid the eyes of the common people, Jihua will be half the success. As for the shipwrecks and minelaying in the waterways, this must wait for the French to enter the port, and the specific arrangements must be made at that time.

After considering it, Ding Yuntong arranged the Jihua of the coastal defense artillery according to this principle.

Ding Richang listened, and was in a trance for a while: The emperor seems to be going to use Mawei Port to attack a fleet, but now the Great Qing Kingdom doesn't seem to be fighting anyone, why is the emperor so prepared?

After Ding Yuntong finished talking about the arrangement, he continued: "The entire defense measures are directly responsible for you and the General Staff, and no one is allowed to know, all documents must be appropriately revised before entering the announcement of the Ministry of Construction, and the time must be hurried, I have ordered the Ministry of Commerce to order Krupp's heavy artillery, it will not take long to arrive one after another, you just need to quickly build the fort according to Jihua, keep it secret, and be cautious in disguise." ”

"Obey the order, Bixia, minister, you must live up to the trust."

"Okay, now let's talk about Keelung Port."

……

In the second half of 1879, the military exercises of the Chinese Army were carried out in succession in several remote locations, and all the troops carried out the exercises in batches. Many units showed laziness, confusion, disorganization and indiscipline during the exercises. There were soldiers who pretended to go off and shot at people who had contradictions with them during the exercise; Some officers attempted to bribe the personnel of the exercise command post to revise the exercise data; Some people are still smoking opium during exercises; There were even two middle-level officers who bribed the sentries on duty with money during the exercise, went to the village outside the exercise area to drink, and even raped a girl in the village after drinking.

Although these violations of discipline have been severely punished, all kinds of circumstances still make Ding Yuntong very distressed, the habits of the old army have long been deeply rooted in the bone marrow, it is not easy to change, and Ding Yuntong is worried that it will not be long before the guards will gradually get infected with these problems.

After thinking about it for a long time, Ding Yuntong made the following decisions, first of all, to set up a new organization under the General Staff Headquarters, called the Military Decree Enforcement Supervision Office of the Armed Forces, referred to as the Military Judge Advocate General's Office, whose duty is that the entire army dispatches military supervisors to supervise the implementation of the decrees of various units, and is not subject to the jurisdiction of any high-ranking general of any army, but only reports to the Military Judge Advocate General's Office, and is directly responsible to the emperor. Military monitors are also strictly prohibited from interfering in any actual operation of the troops. Ding Yuntong hoped to use the principle of checks and balances of power to strengthen his control over military discipline.

Second, the Martyrs' Shrine will be established in Tiananmen Square, and all the officers and soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country will be enshrined in the Martyrs' Shrine for everyone to pay respects. At this time, Tiananmen Square was far less large than that of the Celestial Empire in the previous life. There are three gates on the east and west sides of the Tiananmen Gate Tower, and the east is the left gate of Chang'an, which is the place where the "Golden List Title" was unveiled in ancient times; The west is the right gate of Chang'an, which is the "autumn trial" place where the imperial court concentrates on judging prisoners; In the south, at the location of the former Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, there is a large Qing gate. Between these four gates, red walls are connected to form an enclosed square.

Ding Yuntong ordered the construction in the center of the square, but was soon fiercely opposed by Weng Tongyi, Zhang Peilun and others, because this is equivalent to building the Martyrs' Shrine on the central axis of the imperial city, which is not in line with the Confucian rites, which makes Ding Yuntong both annoyed and helpless, he originally wanted to build in the middle, which can greatly improve the status of the Martyrs' Shrine, but he can also understand the minds of these people, and this kind of ideological argument is not necessary for the time being.

Construction of the Zuihou Martyrs' Shrine began on the west side of the square, and soldiers who died unexpectedly during military exercises will also enjoy the same treatment as those who died in the war, and their families will also receive bereavement benefits. Of course, this cannot be regarded as meritorious service, and it cannot be divided into land.

At the end of October 1879, Ding Yuntong received a telegram from Chile, and during this half a year, he had been paying attention to the fleet received from Britain.

At the end of last year, China and Vietnam signed the China-Vietnam Charter, although both sides have deliberately kept a low profile, but have only tried to do practical work, and progress has been made.

However, Dinh Yun-tung believed that with the French's intelligence-gathering capabilities, they must have made the entire content of the document clear, and believed that this was a big stimulus to France, which was bent on annexing the whole of Vietnam, and it was very likely that there was already a heated discussion within the French government at this time.

At the moment, it seems to be calm, but it will not be long before the skies over Vietnam will be tense, and from now on, it is necessary to prepare for war.

Ding Yuntong instructed Peng Yulin to immediately draft the reorganization and training of the navy, and in more than a month, the navy would be able to cross the Pacific Ocean and come back. After several months of training and reorganization, I believe that we will be able to achieve our ideal state by next spring.

On the other hand, he kept sending telegrams to Guangxi.

Ding Baojiao, Minister of Military Aircraft, was appointed as the governor of Guangxi, replacing Liu Kunyi as director of the Logistics Administration, specifically responsible for logistics supply, and Liu Kunyi, as the governor of Guangxi and Guangzhou, coordinated and commanded the entire Liangguang region, and must fully support all the material needs of Ding Baojiao.

Zhang Shusheng's 3rd Division and Cen Yuying's 6th Division were ordered to be transferred to Guangxi one after another. Feng Zicai's first division went to Nanguan, a border town in Guangxi.

At the same time, the 2nd Division of the Zuo Guigui was ordered to be transferred to the Fengtai Camp in Beijing, and the newly formed 1st Brigade of the Guards Army secretly went to Xishan in Beijing.

After thinking about it, Ding Yuntong sent a telegram to Europe and urgently recalled Liu Mingchuan, Ma Yukun and Nie Shicheng, who were pretending to be military attaches to the embassy, and now they are needed.